Try, to the best of your ability, to avoid learning anything about this film’s plot before you see it. Don’t read the summary on the back of the disc box or the streaming service’s online blurb. Don’t talk to your friends about it. And don’t watch a trailer.

One of the things that make this exciting thriller so compelling is the surprise factor. So the less you know, the more you will enjoy this film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling book.

Ben Affleck delivers an exemplary performance as the conflicted husband who searches for his wife after she disappears. Figuring out what happened to Affleck’s wife — played wonderfully by Rosamund Pike — and who is responsible, quickly becomes all-consuming for the characters and the audience.

Director David Fincher sets a quick pace in this emotionally jarring movie, but still manages to weave in detail and texture that are usually found only in art house films. When combined with the strong acting and a vibrantly bleak script, you get a terrific movie.

The intense violence and disturbing themes makes this best for teens at least 16 years old. (R: Violence, sex and language). 2 hours and 29 minutes.

Ratings (out of 4 stars):

Overall: 3½ stars

Kids: N/A

Teens: 3 stars

Adults: 3½ stars

Seniors: 3 stars

Should you watch it? Yes — one of the best thrillers I’ve seen in years.

“Tammy”

Melissa McCarthy is dangerously close to turning into a modern-day Chris Farley. Like Farley in the 1990s, McCarthy seems willing — and at times eager — to allow herself to be typecast as the overweight fool groveling for the cheap laugh.

For this dreadful outing, with McCarthy starring, writing and producing, the talented comedienne lowers herself unnecessarily into a cinematic sewer that degrades herself, her co-stars and anyone unfortunate enough to witness.

McCarthy plays an unlikable middle-aged woman who goes on a spontaneous road trip with her grandmother (Susan Sarandon) after being fired and discovering her husband’s affair. Delivering epic banality, McCarthy thrashes about on-screen mistakenly believing that characters with low self-esteem that spew insults at everyone in their path are somehow funny.

I had higher hopes for this World War II film starring Brad Pitt as a tough-as-nails tank commander who leads his crew blasting Nazis as they advance through Germany.

Instead of serving up a solid war film, writer/director David Ayer misguidedly fawns over Pitt and sermonizes over the evils of combat. While the battle scenes were strong, they don’t adequately compensate for the bizarre dialogue and pointless cruelty.

Violent police encounters in California last year led to the deaths of 157 people and six officers, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday in a report that provides the first statewide tally on police use-of-force incidents.